Kristen Villebrun and Wendy Bush hoped they wouldn't have to pray for Chedoke Creek, but four years after they first raised alarm about the water's condition, they were part of an Indigenous full moon ceremony to do just that. About 50 people showed up near Princess Point on the dark and frigid Monday evening for the monthly ceremony, which was particularly special as it focused on Chedoke Creek. The body of water that runs into Cootes Paradise had about 24 billion litres of sewage and storm water runoff leak into it due to a gate being left open.
The Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute is recommending that governments across the country develop a national plan to sustainably manage and use water for the agri-food sector. In a report released Monday, the institute called for ambitious commitments from governments and partnerships with stakeholders to prioritize the critical natural resource.
The carcasses of 120 river dolphins have been found floating in a tributary of the Amazon River over the last week in circumstances that experts suspect were caused by severe drought and heat. Low river levels during a severe drought have heated water in stretches to temperatures that are intolerable for the dolphins, researchers believe. Thousands of fish have died recently on Amazon rivers due to a lack of oxygen in the water.
As the province’s drought reaches historical levels, British Columbians are being urged to do their part to conserve water. The minister of emergency management and climate readiness, Bowinn Ma, has called on residents, farmers, businesspeople and industrial plant operators to take urgent steps to cut water use. She highlighted a report from B.C.’s River Forecast Centre that said the combination of record heat in May followed by early snow melt and persistently low levels of rain have created severe drought.
The Department of Water Resources significantly overestimated the state water supply in 2021 because of an error to take into account severe drought due to climate change, the California State Auditor said in a report Thursday. The agency has relied on historical climate data when developing its forecasts, instead of taking into account new methods that better account for extreme conditions, the report said.
Water management is becoming a hot topic as Spain gears up for regional and municipal elections this month and a national vote later in the year, as farmers and other industries vie for an increasingly scarce resource. Spain has one swimming pool for every 37 residents, and these, too, are now in the spotlight. In Vacarisses, a scattered town of more than a dozen subdivisions with views of the Montserrat mountain range, residents are bracing for another difficult summer after enduring 16-hour water cuts last year when aquifers ran dry.
“After two years of severe drought, it is more critical than ever that we utilize our water resources as wisely as possible,” said board chair Leonard Lee in a press release. “The installation of water meters will help our community better understand their own consumption and will allow the SCRD to make efficiencies to further secure water supply for the region.” The leak detection and user water consumption benefits were highlighted in the release. "It is common for communities to realize a reduction in water consumption by 20% to 30%."
Some businesses and amenities on British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast will soon be able to start using treated drinking water again after a severe drought in the area prompted a two-week ban. The Sunshine Coast Regional District, the District of Sechelt and the shíshálh Nation say an order banning non-essential businesses, including breweries and concrete, asphalt and gravel companies, from using water will be lifted Tuesday at 11:59 p.m.
Nearly a year ago, flood waters inundated swaths of south-western British Columbia. Mudslides destroyed sections of highways and swollen, turbid rivers washed away houses and bridges. Now, the region has the opposite problem: months of drought have begun to take a toll on what was once dubbed Canada’s “wet coast”. And as unpredictable weather events become a hallmark of a changing climate, experts warn that the two events are linked – and that a culture of overconsumption and poor resource management threaten to further amplify the effects of the current crisis.
With China's biggest freshwater lake reduced to just 25 per cent of its usual size by a severe drought, work crews are digging trenches to keep water flowing to one of the country's key rice-growing regions. The dramatic decline of Poyang Lake in the landlocked southeastern province of Jiangxi had otherwise cut off irrigation channels to nearby farmlands. The crews, using excavators to dig trenches, only work after dark because of the extreme daytime heat, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
For over four decades, Huy Fong Foods has made its world-famous sriracha hot sauce in Irwindale, Calif. — until the worsening climate crisis finally caught up with the company. Severe heat and drought have hit the hot pepper crops sriracha is made from, forcing the company to suspend production until at least the fall this year. It's not just peppers in trouble. California, a major supplier of fruits and vegetables to Canada and the rest of the U.S., is now in the third year of a severe drought. This year has been the driest on record for the state, impacting its main growing region and most of its crops.
Severe drought, wildfires, flooding and landslides in British Columbia last year show that responding to climate change requires focusing on water and strengthening natural defences provided by healthy watersheds, an expert says. “We’ve all learned that climate crisis is a water crisis,” said Oliver Brandes, co-director of the University of Victoria’s POLIS Project on Ecological Governance.
A Manitoba drought that continues to plunge producers into a financial crisis, and it doesn't appear to be going away soon. The Dairy Farmers of Canada surveyed Manitoba producers this week, and 60 per cent said they won't or are unsure they will have enough feed to get through winter. "Some of the comments that were being made, you could sense the desperation," said David Wiens, vice-president of the organization and a dairy farmer with 200 cows near Grunthal, Man.
The Alberta government is giving $136 million of financial relief to livestock producers and beekeepers, after drought conditions and the pandemic took a toll on the industry. Premier Jason Kenney said at a press conference on Friday that the money is part of the AgriRecovery program — which combines efforts of the federal and provincial governments. According to a release issued Friday, the federal government agreed to $100 million for immediate relief for Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, British Columbia and Alberta.
